October 16, 2007

Laguna Lachuá National Park Brochure

It's been over a year in the making, several rough drafts and months waiting for funds, but finally the new park brochures are finished and should be printed soon. Even though Laguna Lachuá has been a national park for over 37 years, very few promotional materials exist. This may be one of the reasons it remains one of the least visited parks in all of Guatemala. We hope that by distributing brochures and posters to all the major travel agencies in the country, it will encourages some tourists to take the long journey to check out, what we would consider, one of the most beautiful areas in Guatemala.

final inside

final outside spanish copy

October 15, 2007

Ecoregión Lachuá

Ecoregión Lachuá is where we work. Kari made this map as part of some new eco-tourism promotional material.
map layout

October 14, 2007

Álvaro Colom Visit to Salacuim

Guatemala is in the heat of a campaign leading up to it's presidential elections on November 4. Salacuim history was made today when this small aldea of 2,500 people received its first ever presidential campaign visit from Álvaro Colom. He came in a helicopter, talked for about an hour and then his team accepted letters of request from community members seeking community projects if he were to become president. Afterwards, there was squabble around the truck that was throwing out 50 cent bags of kool-aid and little pieces of bread to the locals.

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October 12, 2007

Carpe Diem Visit to Lachuá

Last week we had the good fortune to be hosts to a group of 15 Americans that came for a week long visit to Laguna Lachuá and Salacuim. They came with a ton of energy and willingness to contribute to community projects in the area. They were in week 4 of a 3 month long trip through Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica (link to their blog); all of them learning to speak Spanish and doing community service along the way. I think they all really enjoyed being in our area: visiting the Laguna Lachuá Park, learning about the hand made weaving from TESA (women's group that Nicole works with), working really hard pouring a cement floor in the youth group construction project, harvesting corn with a local farmer, helping to clear weeds from a reforestation project, sifting dirt for the tree nursery, and helping out on a Tilapia farm.

We felt lucky to host such an active group and watched a wonderful exchange of cultures between the locals and the visitors. Most of all I also enjoyed playing in a competitive basketball game with people taller than me.

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Helping mix concrete by hand

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Learning how to weave

October 8, 2007

Trip to Chiapas, Mexico

We've been bogged down with work lately and feeling like our "Close of Service" date that is only about 6 months away is looming, as we're trying to complete various projects. I recently finished up a community tourism training class with a group young people from the neighboring town of Benpec el Castaño which had been keeping us tied down every Saturday for the last few months. We are also pushing to finish a construction project, where the local youth group (JAGUAR) is adding on a study space to their community library. We are in the thick of organizing the scholarship program for the school year that starts next January. Kari is busy with designing some eco-tourism promotional material and website improvements for the Laguna Lachuá National Park. Kari and Nicole have had a few meetings to try to create a young girls group to help promote leadership and self-esteem. Of course there are lots of other important community project ideas that have always been delayed, with the thought "we'll have more time for that later".

I'm also thinking about trying to soak up as much as I possibly can from our precious little remaining time....I've never taken the hike to Rocja Pomtila from Salacuim through the thick of the jungle, I haven't learned more than basic conversations in the Q'eqchi' language, we've never traveled to Xela on the other side of the country, I've only hiked up 1 of the 20 volcanoes higher than 2000 meters in Guatemala.

So, last weekend we made a quick get away to Chiapas, Mexico with our site mate Nicole. I had heard about a National Park called the Lagunas de Montebello that wasn't supposed to be very far from our site. We left early in the morning on Saturday and got to a town called Tziscáo in the afternoon. On the way we crossed the dusty, unmanned border crossing near the town of Ingenieros, Guatemala and spent the rest of the weekend wondering if anybody would check for a stamp in our passports. The Mexican side of the border greeted us with paved roads, a nearly empty micro-bus, and a semi-cautious driver (now that's what I call a developed country). The scenery was beautiful and we found a little cabin to stay at right next to a sweet little lake. Here are a few pictures from the trip....

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Kari on one of the famous rafts made from the local cork trees.

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View from 5 Lakes lookout

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Kari and I at one of the lakes

October 2, 2007

2008 Scholarship Program

As many of you know, we have been working with a community based organization to take over our responsibilities with the scholarship program when we complete our service in April of 2008. We will both still be very much a part of the program and the overall management, but will rely on the Salacuim committee to oversee the day to day administration and management.

We recently finished a website that illustrates all the details for the coming year.
We invite you to read and share in the success and possibility with us once again.

www.lachua.org/scholarships.html

2007 Scholarships for Salacuim Video